Archive for January 2011

I didn’t get a chance to do much today — annual physical this morning. Does anyone else get a sinking feeling when they walk into a doctor’s office and every chair is filled? Plus there are people — elderly people, with walkers — standing against the walls? You know right away you’re going to be there a while. I got home around noon, glad to know that I was even healthier than the last time.

On my way out to the car that morning, I was greeted by puppy Nip, who was not supposed to be there at all. I ran by Andrew’s to let him know where his pup was, and made the mistake of sticking my legs out of the car. I was Puppied. Little muddy pawprints up and down my pant legs. Ah, well; I don’t suppose anyone at a doctor’s office cares what you look like, and the doctor never sees your clothes.

I got in a walk this afternoon, anyway. After the rain yesterday, we’re nearly back where we were before, mud-wise. The horses are enjoying it. I’m glad I don’t own a paint . . . oh, that’s right; we do own this one.

On the way back, I noticed this fungus on an old poplar tree. See how a twig has grown through it? Or maybe it grew around the twig.

I still haven’t found my camera . . . but the old one just needed new batteries to get it going again. It was wanted, to record the cloudburst this afternoon. The forecasters all said we were going to get rain — but they kept talking about gentle showers.

That’s not what we got.

It poured for about fifteen minutes.

Notice dog Cider just under the overhang of the breezeway. She wasn’t about to get out in the rain, even to come to the house. The horses, on the other hand, mostly stood in the rain eyeing their suddenly thundering tin shelters suspiciously.

After the rain stopped, it was beautiful.

The roads will be wet and slick for several days. It would have been better to get a slower, more deeply penetrating storm, but this one was well timed. The grass was beginning to look pretty unhappy.

Not now.

Right now, it’s beginning to cloud up again. This storm may not be done with us yet.

I took pictures with it yesterday, and I know I must have put it down somewhere in the house. Or the garage. Or maybe outside . . . sigh. Anyway, I know I didn’t take it anywhere.

It’s not a good day for taking pictures anyway. We’ve been having nice afternoons, at least. Today is staying gray and chilly all day. The current temperature is 46. They’re having a barrel race on the other side — a makeup day for one that was rained out — but I’m not missing anything much. Or so I keep telling myself.

I’m off to search through the house again. At least there’s a little cleanup getting done!

We went to the Panorama Vista media event this morning, and had a lot of fun. Let’s see . . . the stable was represented by me, Andrew, Marion, Rogelio, and Mary B — and maybe others I didn’t see. All three local channels covered the event, plus the Californian. After the presentation of the giant check — $40,000, not bad — everyone went to planting.

They had cuttings of various plants, no more than wands. There were metal rods to plant them with. The ground was still so soft that you could poke a hole for your cutting, stuff it in, and tromp the dirt in around it almost without effort. Andrew and I planted quite a few, but after an hour of trudging over the rough ground my ankle started talking to me, and I gave it up.

It was a very satisfying event. It felt good to get those little trees in the ground, and to see how well the previous plantings were doing.

When we got back, I took the pups for a walk. As we passed the sheep pens, we found Spanky keeping an eye on them while they ate down some of the new grass.

The pups wanted to demonstrate how they were learning to herd sheep, too.

It looks like Xena is going to be very good, Nip nearly as good, and Chunk . . . well, he prefers the doll.

It seems as if most of my posts lately have been about Bella or the pups. Now that the weather is improving, I’ll make more of an effort to get out and about the ranch and see what other people are doing. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on out there.

. . . and mane. I spent a little time beautifying Bella before we went to work today. Her tail came out very nicely . . .

. . . but her mane is pretty shaggy yet.

After the grooming, we went into the sick pen. I wanted to see how well she would longe without the support of the round pen. She walked, trotted, reversed, and stopped just fine. Then she got to wander around the pen and sample the hay left from its previous occupant; a very elderly Arab who was showing some colic signs.

I don’t record every colic case that Billy brings over to watch. He keeps such a close eye on them that most people probably wouldn’t notice there was a problem. This last one didn’t come up to eat right away, and was stretching out; a sign of abdominal pain. After they brought him over, he ran around the pen hollering for his buddies, and the exercise did the trick. His owner took him back to his own pen yesterday. The colics we’ve had lately have been (knock on wood) of this very minor kind.

The pictures above show that we at last had a sunny day. Everyone that managed to get out on a Thursday enjoyed it. I was also grateful because I got to get my lab work done without having to brave the heavy fog.

It’s been nice to spend more time outside. Between walking puppies and playing with Bella, I’ve been out more than in. It feels really good.

The fog wasn’t as dense today, but it hung on longer. I keep thinking of those long hot summer days, and how wistfully we will look back on the fog when it’s a hundred and four.

I hid inside most of the day knitting and reading. The pups were visiting elsewhere, and it was too chilly for working Bella to seem inviting (to either of us), so . . . no reason to go out.

I was going in for lab work before my annual physical next week, but I looked at that fog and decided to wait a day. Yesterday, someone missed a stop sign in the fog, and ended up on the railroad tracks. He got out in time, but his vehicle was (not surprisingly) totaled by the next freight train.

We did get some hazy sunshine this afternoon, but between Bella and the pups, I stayed too busy for much picture-taking.

I was leading Bella down for a brushing, when Andrew, Gena, Spanky, and all three pups came down the road. You should have seen her face. She had never seen anything like that in her life. To her credit, she didn’t spook — just stood there and goggled. Andrew put the pups in the pen at our house, and we went on with Bella’s lesson. Then the pups and I had our walk, and then we all (except Bella) went in the house for a while and played. Right now they’re back in the pen, flaked out.